


A New Breed of Hunter

by morganaDW (morgana07)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, Angry Dean Winchester, Bottom Sam, Brother Feels, Creature Fic, Hurt Dean Winchester, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, May not be a story for Castiel fans, Mild Kink, Other: See Story Notes, Schmoop, Top Dean, Vampire Dean, Worried Sam, vampire fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 04:41:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 21,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4905850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgana07/pseuds/morganaDW
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A slight AU take on what might have happened if Samuel’s true colors had come out during Live Free or Twihard and Sam’s soul is returned earlier only to discover he has a much bigger problem on his hands when he faces one of them becoming something they’ve lived to destroy. He must decide to act or risk it all to save Dean in a way that could end them both.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Language, explicit content as well as some violence. Read the note for more.  
> Pairing: Sam and Dean  
> Beta: lotrspngirl  
> Author Note: This was written both for a Creature Fic challenge and because the muse went off the rails while I was ill a month ago. This is a little more AU than most of my Wincest and while it does have elements of canon, it covers what happened after 06x05 Live Free or Twihard and while it does have a slightly happy ending or one where no one dies and the boys are together it also was left off in a way that I could add a sequel or such to it later on. Yes, there is sex. Also, fans of Castiel might want to not read this one or go into it prepared to see a different side of him. That is all

**A New Breed of Hunter**

**Chapter One**

“Kill me!”

“I… I can’t do that. Don’t ask me to do that.”

“I’m not asking. I’m telling you! Kill me, Sam. Kill me now because I… I won’t live like this. I won’t be what we’ve fought nearly all our lives!”

Sam Winchester refused to look behind him; he refused to look back at his older brother. Not because it hurt to see Dean in chains, but because the guilt behind why his older brother was currently chained in the Panic Room demanding Sam kill him was nearly as bad as every other piece of guilt currently eating him alive.

The past 48 hours had been a roller coaster of emotions for the younger Winchester. Not only had he learned what had been missing within him since his return from the Cage but he was also once again reminded that there was only one person he could truly count on to have his back, to not betray him, and now he was faced with possibly having to kill that person as the results of multiple betrayals and one man’s bitter hate had caused the unthinkable to happen.

** 24-Hours Earlier: **

“Where the hell is my brother?” Sam demanded as he stormed into the base that the hunters working with Samuel Campbell, the father of the Winchester’s late mother Mary, were occupying.

For a year, since his return from the Cage, Sam had worked with his grandfather and cousins. He let himself be kept from his brother and now he knew why. Now, as he shoved past a startled Mark and Christian to grab Samuel by the front of his shirt, he understood why it had been so vital to keep him away from Dean until it suited Samuel’s purpose to have them together again.

“Take a second and calm down, Son. I’m sure whatever’s got you worked up can be—ugh!” Samuel had motioned the others to stay back. He was sure he could contain Sam’s rare showing of emotion easily enough until his head snapped back from a hard fist and a gun was aimed at his face.

“Do not call me that.” Sam’s tone was hard and cold, much like he figured the group of hunters were used to hearing as he’d been cold and hard since his return.

The rage inside him was vast, as was the guilt and now fear that he might be too late to stop what he’d just learned was Samuel’s master plan of revenge.

“Only my father had the right to call me that. You are _not_ my father. Hell, as of right now I’m not even considering you my grandfather! In fact, if you don’t tell me in the next five seconds where Dean is and just what the hell you assholes did to him, the only thing I will consider you as is a dead man.” Sam stared into Samuel’s hard eyes, unwavering even as he moved the gun smoothly to fire it into the cement floor next to where one of his cousins was about to lunge at him. “Move on me and the next bullet I fire goes into Samuel’s head,” he warned the room. “One more time. Where is my brother?”

Samuel frowned slightly as he took in the tightly clenched jaw, the hard eyes and no-nonsense tone of his youngest grandson. The tone was cold but there was an underlying emotion there that he wasn’t used to hearing since he’d been reassured that Sam would not have those emotions now. He’d also been told the boy would be able to be controlled.

Now, as Sam shoved the barrel of his pistol against the side of his head, the older hunter was starting to realize something drastic had happened and it wasn’t good from his perspective.

“Dean was with you the last time I saw him,” he reminded Sam slowly while trying to move his one hand back to feel for something behind him. “If you lost your brother then maybe you should ask yourself why he’d run from you if you boys were so close. I also think you should relax a bit until you come back to your senses.” Samuel’s hand jerked up with a needle clenched in his fist, aimed for Sam’s neck with the plan to inject him with the drug that they’d used in the beginning, only to swear when the needle was knocked out of his hand. “Sam!”

“Not happening again, old man.” Sam had caught the motion and had been warned that Samuel would try to drug him if possible, so he’d been ready; jerking him away from the wall of shelves and against the heavy table in the middle of the floor, Sam leaned over his grandfather and hissed, “You had all your fun drugging me and using me that you’ll get. Oh, and before you get the idea to have the assholes behind me try to jump me? Think again.”

Christian and Mark Campbell had just been about to do that when suddenly the whole base seemed to shake and they, along with the other few hunters there, were blown back away from Sam. They all stood frozen as the doors opened to allow a grim faced angel to enter along with a pissed-off, grizzled, old hunter.

“Damn it! I thought you said he was back to normal! That whatever the hell was done to him got fixed!” Bobby Singer yelled as he aimed his rifle at Christian when he tried to move. “This does not look like the boy I’ve known!”

“With the restoration of Sam’s soul, he is back to normal. Or he’s not as cold or quick to kill as he has been while working with the Campbell’s,” Castiel replied calmly even as he took in the scene in front of him. “True, it might take some time for Sam to return fully to normal but this is more… the pissed off Winchester side of his personality, I believe. He does share Dean’s temper once it’s ignited, despite it being harder to ignite unless someone threatens what is his.”

“Like my brother.” Sam ignored his back-up for the moment to focus on his clearly enraged grandfather as it became obvious to Samuel that his plans were falling apart. “Dean went back to pick up the rest of his stuff from Lisa’s place while I, liked the drugged out, soulless little puppet you’ve had for the past year, went to check out that little ‘tip’ you gave me.” He shoved the barrel of his weapon a little harder into the side of his grandfather’s neck. Now, he could vividly recall the past year and hated every memory that came to him as well as the man in front of him.

“The only thing was… it wasn’t a tip of a possible werewolf, but a trap. You sent me into a damn trap set by your hunters with the plan to jump me, drug me, just to… what? Get me down so your demon buddy or the asshole angel behind me could steal a bit more of my soul? Or was it to keep me away from Indiana, away from my brother while you sent Christian and Mark after Dean?” Sam demanded tightly as anger and guilt fought for control of his returning emotions.

For over a year, Sam had felt something was off inside him but he hadn’t been able to place it. He’d known he was lacking emotionally and knew he’d been doing things for Samuel that he normally never would’ve considered doing while working with his brother, or even their father, but had never considered why that was. Until recently. And now that he knew why, he was furious at not only himself but also the trench coat wearing Angel behind him.

“You know neither of those boys will forgive you for this stunt, don’t you?” Bobby aimed this toward Castiel while he covered a few of the other hunters. “You’ll be lucky if Dean just doesn’t gut you with your own damn angel blade when he finds out just what the hell part you’ve played in this whole mess.”

The angel actually was very aware that in his desire to stop the civil war in Heaven, he’d allied himself with the new King of Hell to find the door to Purgatory; a door to power that would help them both. And all he had to do was betray the two humans who he’d tried to help since meeting them. Castiel knew even by helping to return the lost pieces of Sam’s soul, helping him now would not be enough to ever return him to the good graces of either hunter; especially if this cost Sam the life of his brother.

Samuel had been about to sneer at his grandson when he suddenly tossed a look of surprise over to the stoic angel. “You gave…” he stopped, quickly rethinking this entire situation as he knew that if Sam had his soul back, if he had knowledge of the plan that Castiel and Crowley had been working on, or at least the part he suspected the angel had been told about, then it would be impossible to take the path he had been planning on. So knowing this, he changed plans. “Why would you think I’d send your cousins after Dean?” he asked calmly, a small smirk forming. “After all, he’s barely the great hunter I’d heard he was. He got soft after he retired. Maybe he decided when he went back to… _ugh_!”

The barrel of the gun cut off the sneering words as Sam shoved it harder into the soft flesh of the older man’s throat while reaching into his jacket pocket as he glared at his grandfather. “Dean might have left hunting, he might have ‘retired’, but he did it because I made him promise to go to Lisa if anything happened to me. Even retired for a goddamn year, Dean is still a better hunter than you or half the assholes here, including those two bastards who do your dirty work for you!”

Sam’s hand pulled out something that immediately caught Samuel’s eye and this time it was Sam’s turn to smirk. “Mark has a bad habit of taking things from people he kills while Christian likes to use that blade of his a bit too much.” He pressed the speed dial button on his phone and almost instantly a familiar ringtone was heard across the room.

“Dean started to send me a text before I was jumped by a couple of your hunters and before Castiel and Bobby showed up along with a very pissed off Death. After I woke up from having bits and pieces of my soul shoved back into my chest, I tried to call my brother but he didn’t pick up.” Sam glanced over his shoulder to where Bobby was yanking the ringing phone out of the hunter’s jacket before looking back down at his now simmering grandfather. “I went back to Indiana. I went back to that house where Dean believed Lisa and Ben would be safe and I found what looked like a goddamn massacre had happened! I found Lisa and Ben dead like a wild animal had torn them apart.”

“Maybe your so-called perfect brother finally snapped!” Christian said with a smirk as he glared at Sam. “He isn’t a hunter! He’s an out of control bastard trained by someone too obsessed with something he knew nothing about! Now he’s something that needs putting down! Now he’s a killer! Now he’s something that will be hunted like the animal he is and _ugh_!”

“Sam!” Samuel shouted when his grandson spun to fire his pistol, the bullet hitting Christian in the shoulder. “The boy’s right! Dean’s been out of control for years and whatever happened in Indiana…”

“Y’see, that’s where you’re screwing yourself because while on the surface it looks like Dean either lost control, that maybe your so-called ‘cure’ didn’t work, and that when he went back he lost it and killed Lisa and Ben, I know my brother.” Sam wondered how long it would take to get the visions of that nightmare out of his head as he could still recall the brutal sight he’d found upon walking into that house. "I know how my brother thinks, Samuel. I watched him fight when he’d been turned to not lose control so I know, despite what it looked like, that Dean didn’t kill the Bradens.” He shot a hard look back at where Gwen was trying to stop the blood coming from Christian’s shoulder.

“I’ve hunted with them long enough to also know how each of them hunts. Mark’s a trophy killer but Christian’s a sadist. Ben’s throat was cut shallowly enough that he bled out slowly while probably watching his mother be killed and I bet when I find my brother, Dean’ll show wounds from trying to defend them and himself.” Sam leaned closer to Samuel’s face without even being aware of how his tone had taken the same edge he’d heard so often from his own father when John Winchester was well and truly pissed. “Dean might have changed with his time in Hell, but he would never hurt a child. So now you tell me where my brother is or I’ll show you how much I’ve changed because while I’ve got my soul back, while I’ve got my emotions back, I am more than willing to push them down and do to you what you had those two do to Lisa and Ben.”

Bobby glanced over to see the way Sam’s face was set and could see that Castiel was actually frowning as if the angel was sharing his concern that perhaps all of the soulless side of the boy hadn’t gone yet. “Sam!” he yelled when he saw a change on his face that he’d seen on Dean right after the boy got back from his time in Hell. “If Dean’s here then he’s got to be somewhere in this place. Castiel and I’ve got this covered; you go find your brother.”

Sam didn’t move for several seconds before he finally relented and stepped back from Samuel, but not before he gave a hard and fast punch to the older man’s jaw. “Whatever plan you had for him, whatever you did, if Dean’s hurt severely, I promise that you will hurt ten times as much,” he promised quietly. “Don’t let any of them follow me and I’ll handle any that I encounter.”

“Sam!” Samuel yelled as his grandson started to head for the back of the base to where he knew the other sections were located. “It’s too late! You might find your hero, but he’s not the man he was! Christian was right when he said he wasn’t anything but an animal to be put down now!”

Sam hesitated to consider those words. He knew what he feared had happened when he realized who had probably jumped Dean back in Indiana, and while he didn’t understand the reason behind their grandfather’s hate for his brother, Sam just wanted to find Dean and would deal with the how and why once he had him.

“If you lied to me about that cure working, or if you screwed us over by not doing it correctly and Dean’s hurt because of it, I promise that whatever deal you made with Crowley to come back from the dead won’t be worth it. I will send you right back to hell,” he promised grimly.

“Did your bastard father know he’d raised a couple of incestuous faggots?” Christian called out as he batted Gwen away, but stayed still when a shotgun was aimed at his face. “Did he know, or does this old man know just what the hell you two freaks used to do? Samuel should’ve let us kill both of you ‘cause just having you alive tarnishing Campbell blood makes me sick!”

Sam had gone still, fingers fisting. He wasn’t upset at the names his cousin had used as he and Dean had both accepted the line that they’d crossed years ago. He was upset because he knew the _only_ way Christian could’ve learned about that little grey area between them was if they’d somehow gotten into Dean’s head because Sam knew it would take a lot to make his older brother admit to loving him in a way that was neither legal or ethical.

Slowly, he glanced back to stare into Christian’s eyes, ignoring Bobby and Castiel and the obvious surprise on Gwen’s face while Samuel stared at him stoically. “As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have any Campbell blood in my veins. My mother stopped being a Campbell when she married my father, and given what I’ve come to learn of the so-called great and mighty Campbell family line of hunters? I’d rather admit to being a Winchester because there ain’t a one of you that’s really impressive. And as for what Dean and I did or have done in the past, or who knew about it? That’s my business.”

Sam left the room to the lessening shouts and curses. He knew Bobby and Castiel could handle Samuel and the others, and if any others were still in the base and tried to stop him then he’d handle them himself.

The base had a level below it but Sam was aware that there was also a second level below that; one that Samuel had always refused him entrance to and now, with the return of his soul as well as several memories of his last year, he suspected he knew why that had been.

Before, he’d never questioned Samuel’s demands that certain monsters be taken alive or what was done with them later on. Now he suspected he had a clue to where they went or at least temporarily, and if he was right then he suspected he knew where his grandfather would have locked his brother up… if Dean was still alive.

Sam ran through the base to get to where he knew the entrance was, only to have to waste more time than he cared for picking the damn locks on the heavy steel door that would take him to the section he hadn’t been allowed before.

“Shit,” he whispered once he entered the long, dimly lit corridor that was lined on both sides with heavy steel doors to see that all of them were open but one; the one at the very end of the hall and it was locked with multiple locks. “Dean!”

Learning the truth of his escape from the Cage as well as just how Castiel had been involved and the lies that had been told to both him and Dean bothered the hunter, but Sam knew there’d be time to deal with the angel as well as Crowley later. All he wanted was to find Dean, get him the hell out of this place, and hopefully make it all right between them again.

Sam feared Dean would blame him for letting him be turned into a vampire and everything that had happened because of that since, but he would take his brother’s hate as it came if he needed to… once he found him.

“Dean? Dean! Hey, hang on!” Sam wasn’t sure if his brother was even being held behind the door but the gut feeling in his belly told him he was.

Samuel’s hatred for his brother had been explained in basic terms by Castiel, who’d had the story told to him by a too talkative Crowley it seems, and while it made no sense to Sam, he suspected that their grandfather would want to punish Dean a lot more before letting him die as he saw his brother as the reason behind not only his own death but also for their mother’s.

There was a lot that Sam knew he’d be making up for, not only to Dean but to others given what memories he had. Death, while lecturing Castiel about playing with souls and making deals with demons, explained he’d try to put up a wall to shield Sam’s mind from the events of Hell but even now Sam could tell that wall might not be strong enough, so he focused on picking the locks until the last one was off and he jerked open the door to nearly gag on the thick stench that hit him the moment it opened.

The smell was a mix of old and new odors but the stench of blood, of decay and things that made Sam’s already rolling stomach pitch dangerously, almost made him hesitate until a sound from inside the dark cell caught his ears and the smells were no longer an issue.

“Dean? Can you hear me? Hang on while I try to get some light in here and… oh shit.” Sam had been cursing his own haste for not thinking to grab a flashlight. He’d been reaching into his pocket for his lighter when a sound had him glancing up quickly and immediately realized that in his haste to find and rescue his brother that he’d left himself wide open to one of the first mistakes he’d been taught to avoid. “ _Shit_!”

Sam had been so intent on finding Dean in the darkened cell that he’d let his hunter’s senses drop and missed the way the hair on the back of his neck had been standing up in warning of possible danger. He hadn’t realized what he’d stepped into until it was too late; he was trying to avoid having his throat ripped out or his arm dislocated when he went flying across the cell to crash on the hard, sticky floor with a solid weight pinning him down. “Dean!”

Even in the dark cell with very little to no light available to see his attacker or even to see to fight back and as a hand gripped his throat to start to squeeze it while other pressed down on his chest, Sam realized he didn’t need to see to know who was trying to kill him. He’d felt a similar grip ever since he’d been old enough to spar with his brother.

“Dean, wait! It’s me! It’s… _ugh_ … Sam!” Sam managed to get his one hand up to grip the wrist of the hand on his throat, feeling the fingers squeezing with a lot more strength than Dean normally should’ve had and a piece of Sam began to go cold right then at that thought.

Growing up together, trained by their father together, had made the Winchesters pretty evenly matched when they sparred or wrestled. Or it had until recently.

Sam, in the last year and some odd months, had put on more muscle mass as he hadn’t felt the need for sleep and so had worked out instead. He was broader at the shoulders now than he had been and so he knew he had the strength to take his brother and flip their positions… or he should have had.

The counter move worked because Sam figured Dean either wasn’t aware that it was him right then or he hadn’t expected him to try the one offensive move that, up until this day, Sam had never been able to pull off successfully. He didn’t have time to feel pleased that it had this time because just as he was about to try to make Dean understand he didn’t have to fight, that he was being rescued from whatever their mother’s family might have done to the hunter Sam’s head and back suddenly hit the ground again as he found himself flipped.

“Dean! Stop!” Sam felt the back of his head explode in pain as it hit hard but then he caught a flash of something that nearly made his heart stop in his already tight chest. “No. Oh, God… no.”

The fear, the dread that had been there ever since Sam couldn’t reach Dean by phone or text and when he got back to the Braden house to see what he had, was almost choking him with guilt and dread. Then when Castiel revealed what he’d known of Samuel’s plans of revenge and Sam realized just how badly he’d been played, he’d feared what he might find when he got to Dean. But it still took him off guard to see what he did when what light from the hallway suddenly showed him a flash of a blurry image above him.

The pain in his head, the lack of air from having his throat gripped tightly had Sam’s vision swimming, but he still caught a glimpse of his brother’s rugged face in that second of light. He saw the badly swelled eye, the blood and bruises on his face and on his throat, but then Sam saw what he’d been hoping he wouldn’t and all of sudden all of his other failures no longer seemed as huge as his failure this time was.

Bobby had tried to tell him that it wasn’t his fault, that Dean wouldn’t blame him for either the vampire mess or even the Braden’s deaths, except as Sam looked up to see the fangs that his older brother couldn’t fight back over the bloodlust that he could tell was hitting Dean hard, the hunter knew it wouldn’t matter who hated or blamed him for anything now.

Sam knew he’d never forgive himself for allowing Dean to be turned, for not making sure Samuel’s cure was valid and lasting, or that his brother was safe from attack while he went to get his stuff from Lisa’s. He caught a flash of green from wild eyes and almost knew for certain Dean was either in shock, drugged, or totally lost in the lust for blood that probably being locked in a cell with the smell of it had caused to be even stronger.

Stunned at the knowledge that either the cure hadn’t worked, hadn’t lasted, or that Samuel had allowed something to turn his brother again and that Dean was truly a vampire rocked the younger Winchester in a way that he hadn’t been expecting.

He’d managed to once again grip the wrist of the hand his brother had on his throat but knew that even if the Campbell’s hadn’t forced blood on Dean to complete the change that Dean’s strength right then would be much greater than his was. Not that Sam was certain he cared as he was abruptly punched in the gut with a feeling of guilt even stronger than he’d been feeling since waking up with his soul restored.

“Dean… it’s okay, Dean. I’m… here. I’ll be with you.” Sam wasn’t sure his words could be heard since he was forcing them out of vocal cords that were being squeezed. Sam was certain if he didn’t pass out from lack of air soon, his throat would be crushed under the strength of fingers that he suddenly could recall once being gentle.

There’d been three times that Sam could literally recall his life flashing in front of his eyes: once he’d been a teenager and had gotten hurt on a hunt; the other had been in Cold Oak when Jake had literally stabbed him in the back; finally, the last had been when he’d been fighting Lucifer for control as he’d beaten Dean nearly to death while in control of Sam’s body.

Those times had been flashes of his life, his past, of growing up with Dean as well as other things more recently such as Jessica, Ellen, Jo, Ash, their Dad and so many others. But this time, as Sam instinctively tried to fight to draw air into his struggling lungs, his flashes were of a different type of memory.

Christian’s jab at the not so brotherly relationship that had been between them since Sam was 17 and since he returned to hunting hadn’t hurt so much as it had brought back the memories that Sam had been trying to bury once he realized something had been wrong with him lately.

It had been the moment in some motel recently when frustration over a case had turned to something more like it sometimes had and Sam hadn’t felt the same burning need that he’d felt since he was 16 that he’d known something was truly wrong with him.

He hadn’t been able to explain it then to Dean and had sensed his brother’s growing concern was turning to more than just doubt about the changes in Sam. Sam had known it had hurt Dean when he’d pulled away, but Sam couldn’t lie to himself or Dean right then. He had been afraid that whatever had been wrong with him might end up hurting the one person he still cared for, even if it was just in a little way.

Now that Sam knew what the problem had been, knew why he hadn’t been able to care, he longed to tell Dean everything as well as tell him what he’d wanted to from the first moment they’d seen one another again. But now Sam had doubts if he’d ever have that chance or if Dean would even want to hear those words from him.

Feeling his lungs and chest burning more while little white lights danced in front of his eyes, Sam considered fighting for his life or at least breaking the hold. But instead of that, he managed to force his other hand up to just touch Dean’s bare chest to press it over his brother’s heart like Sam had done so many other times.

“It’s… okay, Dean,” he gasped as Sam now could hear his own heart in his ears and could feel the grip on Dean’s wrist weakening. “I’m… not leaving you. My… fault… I… I… love you.”

Those weren’t the words Sam planned to say with what he figured might be his last breath, but they were what came out and he didn’t care. If he was dying here then he’d at least say the damn words that he’d never gotten to say all that much to his brother over the years.

“…… Sammy?”

It was the name that caught onto Sam’s fading thoughts. Dean’s voice was deeper, slightly more gravelly than usual as if he was fighting himself or his throat was raw, but for Sam it was hearing the nickname that was only his brother’s to use that made him try to focus his blurry eyes.

Ever since he and Dean started hunting together again this time, since Sam’s return from the Cage, he’d noticed that as Dean began noticing the difference in him and his lack of emotions that he stopped using the nickname; until now.

Sam felt the fingers around his throat loosen but when he went to move his one hand, the hand Dean had on his chest pressed a little harder as if in warning and the hunter went still.

“Is… is it you?” Dean wasn’t sure what was real right then. His head, thoughts, and body were all fighting for control that he could tell was waning.

Dean’s memories once he got to Lisa’s house were shaky. He knew he’d been worried about his brother’s actions as of late, especially since he’d recalled seeing him in the alley the night of the vampire attack.

As someone who’d known and practically raised Sam all his life, Dean had instantly felt the change in his brother from that first moment back together but he’d been willing to cut the kid some slack given what he was sure Sam had endured at the hands of two pissed off Archangels. It was harder to ignore the way their so-called grandfather, a man that Dean hadn’t cared for when he first met him back in the past, acted or how he seemed to assume control when it came to Sam.

The hunter in Dean had been screaming warnings to him from the first moment of meeting their mother’s ‘family’ but he’d been more focused on his brother and trying to decide if hunting was still what he wanted to do after being retired for a year.

Losing his brother to a damn hole in the ground had been the hardest thing Dean had ever faced. He knew he only went to Lisa because Sam had asked him to, even if he hadn’t actually promised to, but Dean knew he needed something to ground him while he worked to free Sam from that damn Cage.

For over a year he’d tried to adjust to ‘normal’ but had quickly learned that while he might not be hunting like he had, there was no way to take the hunter out of him. So after the Djinn attack, after learning what he had about Sam’s return, about Samuel and the Campbell soup kids, the hunter in him just knew something was wrong.

Dean had known there’d be no going back to Lisa and Ben after what happened that night, so he’d only gone back to pick up what stuff had still been there and to try to explain his actions.

He hadn’t liked leaving Sam on his own, but figured it wouldn’t be for too long. The hunter in Dean had felt the odd vibes when he got to Lisa’s house but ignored it. He’d also felt the odd way his body was feeling but had dismissed that as possible aftereffects of Samuel’s so-called ‘cure’. It wasn’t until it was too late that Dean realized his mistake in ignoring both issues.

Now as he stared down into Sam’s face, he struggled to ignore the burning need for blood that he’d woken up with after the beating he’d taken both at the house and then here.

Dean knew he’d never forget the screams he’d heard in that house. He’d never forget the guilt at what knowing him had cost the Braden family or the fury at what his so-called family had done to cause it.

Dean knew his grandfather blamed him for what happened back in the past with the Yellow Eyed Demon; it didn’t surprise him when he first realized the cure had only been temporary, Dean already knew Samuel would betray him. It did surprise him that so many were willing to follow the old man blindly and do what Christian and Mark had done to Lisa and her son once they’d taken Dean out of the fight.

Dean wasn’t sure if the change had taken full effect now or not; he hadn’t fed before and had tried to fight back his cousin when they forced him near a barely clinging to life Lisa, and Dean feared before he lost consciousness that they’d forced some of the woman’s blood into his mouth.

Waking up in the cell with a smug Samuel promising to make him suffer for his crimes against the Campbell family and how Dean would suffer before he let him die, how his brother would never come looking for him because Samuel owned him, had made Dean furious. But he’d been unable to fight back against whatever they’d hit him with back in Indiana.

The smell of old blood as well as new that had been added to the cell to cause him to lose control had nearly sent Dean over the edge when he started to wake up earlier, but he’d fought it. Then he thought he’d heard Sam calling his name but hadn’t put much stock into it because Sam as he was now wouldn’t give a damn, and he knew Samuel and the others wouldn’t let his brother near him.

It had been instinct now to fight but what startled Dean was how easy it had been to take Sam down. He hadn’t been certain at first if it was his brother even though the voice was Sam’s, and it had been that voice that started to pull at the man who was fighting inside the monster as Dean saw himself now.

Sam’s tone lately had been off. A little colder, harder, and missing that little bit of emotion that his brother always seemed to have when he spoke. This time, as his voice penetrated the red haze of bloodlust, Dean heard the shake, the buried fear. But what finally snapped him back was when he heard Sam say that he loved him and he felt a light tough to the center of his chest.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Sam managed to confirm but wasn’t sure what else he could say right then to prove it. “Death said to tell you that we seriously needed to stop screwing with natural selection. He also said you owed him fried pickles for putting my soul back in.”

Dean almost rolled his eyes about that when he suddenly frowned. “Soul? What the hell was Death doing messing with your soul and how the hell did it… _Sonuvabitch_!”

Keeping Sam pinned was easy right then as Dean slowly realized what his brother was saying and then the light bulb literally went off. “Do I want to ask who the hell removed your soul so I can at least rip their hearts out before I have you kill me?” he asked tightly and fought to push the fangs he could feel in his mouth back. “Was it Samuel?”

“He had a part in it but…” Sam hesitated a second until he felt Dean’s fingers slid up to grip his jaw with a grip tight enough that Sam winced. “When Castiel pulled me out of the Cage, he left a good chunk there, and then he’s been drawing little bits away for him and Crowley to use to find Purgatory. Dean, that hurts…” He didn’t want to fear his brother, but he could almost tell the struggle that was going on above him when hot green eyes pinned him even in the dark cell.

“Huh. Okay. I owed him pain for letting you out of the Panic Room that night, so now I’ll kill him.” Dean might have considered the angel an ally once but now he was pissed off and figured if he was going down that he’d take the goddamn trench coat wearing asshole with him just for thinking he could hurt Sam in any way and not expect to pay. “If I move, don’t come close to me. Turn the lights on so you can see me,” he said as he slowly eased away from his brother. “Are you here alone?”

Dean didn’t think Sam was because he could pick up the scents of both Castiel and Bobby on his brother’s clothes. He groaned as a light suddenly flashed on once Sam got to his feet and he steadied his still spinning head to find the light hanging on the other side of the room. “Shit!”

Sam let his eyes adjust to the brightness but knew it had to be worse on Dean since he suspected right now all of his brother’s senses had to be more enhanced. “Dean?” He took in the bruises and dried blood on his brother’s chest and arms, but what made Sam’s teeth clench was when he saw the damage to Dean’s back which was littered with deep cuts, bruises and blood that the younger man knew had to be increasing the lust for blood. “Can I…” he started to take a step but stopped when a hand shot out. “Dean.”

“Stay there.” Dean could _hear_ Sam’s heartbeat and he could _smell_ Sam’s blood, so he knew Sam’s head was bleeding where it hit the floor of the cell the last time. “The cure… either it didn’t work or…”

“Samuel fucked it up on purpose.” Sam knew that as well as he knew anything right then. “He… I’m sorry, Dean. I… I let you be turned and then I didn’t… I’m…”

The guilt, the emotion that he could hear now almost made Dean smile because _this_ was the little brother he’d been missing for so long; this was the brother that wore his heart on his sleeve and the one that Dean now feared he’d have to hurt before this could be handled.

“You didn’t have a soul to be able to tell right from wrong so I think you get a pass for the blame, Sam.” Dean guessed it might be more complicated, but right then he was working on fighting back the need for blood as well as the need to hurt people for what was done to not only Sam but now to the Braden family. “You good now?”

“Dude, I think we need to focus on you right now,” Sam said but understood that even now Dean was just being Dean. He knew his brother would probably always be looking after him even when he was fighting a fight that Sam wasn’t sure how they would win. “Let me get you out of here. We’ll head for Bobby’s and…”

Dean took a slow step closer to see if he could maintain control if he was close to Sam. “I think the change is complete, Sam,” he told his brother grimly, reaching up to ran a shaking hand over his face and he could feel the dry blood there. “They… did you go to the house?”

“I was jumped by a couple of Samuel’s guys before Castiel and Bobby got to me, so that’s why I didn’t reply to that text you tried to send me. After I woke up from whatever Death did, I headed right to Lisa’s place and… Dean…” Sam stopped as Dean’s fist suddenly slammed into the wall in a fit of rage that Sam guessed was appropriate given the circumstances. “You didn’t kill them.”

“No, but I also couldn’t save them either.” Dean knew he’d tried but when the hunters busted in the door he’d already been fighting the return of the symptoms, and then he’d been nailed with a dart of something that took him down hard. “They didn’t care about Lisa and Ben, Sam. They hurt them to get at me. Lisa begged Christian not to hurt Ben but…” he stopped to try to push back the searing memory of blood and screams of people who’d cared for him and that he’d cared for, even though Lisa had already come to the conclusion who meant more to him.

“She was alive when they held me down and let her blood drip into my mouth. They’d drugged me and beat the shit out of me while those two assholes were killing Lisa so I couldn’t move. But I saw her eyes… and other than your face the night my deal came due, I think it’ll be the accusation in her eyes of what I caused to happen that I’ll remember until I die now.” Dean tensed at the hand on his arm but didn’t jerk it off like he would have if it had been anyone else. “They killed them because they thought it would matter to me, and it did but not for the reason I think they expected it to. Killing them just adds more to the guilt I’ve been carrying since we were kids and gives me another reason to want to kill every single Campbell in this goddamn place.”

The anger in Dean’s voice as well as the guilt reminded Sam that while he carried his emotions on his sleeve, that his brother wore his buried guilt there as well; Dean would have a hard time accepting that the deaths of Lisa and Ben wasn’t his fault.

“We’ll make this right, Dean.” Sam wasn’t sure how but right then all he wanted was to get the hell out of the Campbell base.

“There’s no way to make this right, Sam!” Dean whirled with a speed that took the younger Winchester off guard when he grabbed for Sam’s shirt, shoving him against the wall outside the cell door with more force than he’d intended; he saw the flash of pain on Sam’s still paler than normal face but was having a difficult time reining his feelings in. “I am everything we were taught to fight! To kill! I’m a goddamn mon… mnmm!”

Sam’s hand suddenly shot up to cover Dean’s mouth. He needed to stop him before that word was said because there was no way Sam could bear to hear it out loud. He’d heard his brother say it once to him, but to hear it said about Dean, to have Dean speak it about himself, was something Sam couldn’t handle yet.

“We will make this right,” he said while meeting and holding his brother’s eyes until finally Dean nodded. The reality of actually reversing the process was slim to none as Sam knew and the alternative was something the hunter in him knew but the brother would refuse until he had no other choice. “Please? Let me take you out of here?”

Dean stared at his brother before stepping back, but kept a hand on Sam’s shoulder another moment. “I… I don’t know how much control I can keep, Sam,” he warned tightly as he could feel the start of burning need building again and feared he knew what the only thing to stop that would be; the one thing that Dean would rather die than do. “I need you to promise me that if it looks like I’m going out of control or if I start to lose it that either you’ll do it or you’ll let Bobby. Promise me?”

Sam bit his lip, understanding what that meant and what Dean was asking, but not willing to give that promise verbally any more than Dean had been the promise to get out of hunting and go to Lisa if their plan backfired. So he merely gave a slight nod while pulling his jacket off to hand it to Dean. “Can you make it up okay or…?”

“Yeah, I think I can walk out of here on my own.” Dean was edgy, and he did feel weird, but he’d be damned if he’d be carried out by his little brother so long as he was conscious. “Sammy?” He hesitated as he was unsure how to say what he wanted to. “You know… well… about what you said back in the cell? You know that I… love you too, right? And that if this whole vampire thing hadn’t knocked me on my ass that I would’ve figured out what was wrong with you?”

“I know, Dean,” Sam murmured and waited until his brother had turned to add softly. “To both things.”

“You also know that right now my hearing is really good?” Dean didn’t bother to look back as he could feel Sam’s closeness and wished he trusted himself a little more to do what he’d wanted to for months.

“Yep, know that too.” Sam offered a small smile as he stayed close to Dean’s side as they headed out of the lower sections of the hunter’s base.

It took them some time to get up to the main section; twice Dean had to stop as his stomach cramped in pain and once he’d pushed Sam away because Dean could feel the desire growing too strong for blood and he refused to lose what control he had with his brother.

By the time they got close enough where Sam could hear voices, he worried that the moment Dean saw either their grandfather or one of the cousins that what control his brother was straining for would be lost. “Dean?”

The hunger was building but so was the anger and as Dean followed Sam into the main room and his gaze landed on Samuel, the urge to tear the man’s throat out nearly got the better of him. The hunter feared it would have if he suddenly hadn’t felt fingers touch his arm and wondered what it still was about Sam that could rein him in when his temper started to get the best of him.

“Bobby? I’ve got him. Let’s go.” Sam understood he was leaving a very dangerous hornets’ nest behind if he didn’t deal with the Campbell’s, but right then all he wanted was to get Dean as far away from this place as possible so they could try to decide what needed to be done.

“Sam!” Samuel snapped while glaring at his grandsons with hate and now disgust. “Your brother’s a monster now. The boys fed him blood, so there’s no going back to human for him… if he ever was human to begin with!”

Dean stepped just slightly in front of his now tensing brother to stare at their mother’s father. “Considering I saw you die and I’m now half certain Crowley brought you back, I’m not sure I’d be tossing the humanity card around too much if I were you.

“You hated our father. You were going to force our mother to marry someone of your choosing so you could continue your little family dynasty even though Mom wanted out. You blame me for what happened back then but you’d already forced Mom away, old man,” he met the heated glare head on while hearing Sam tell someone to back off. “Yeah, you might have gotten your wish and I’ll be dying soon, but it won’t be at your hands. You might’ve made me into this but if and when I die, it’ll be at my choosing. And before I let either you or your little sadistic asshole hunters near my brother again… I’ll make damn certain this line is over before I buy it.”

“You’re worse than a monster, freak!” Christian shouted from where he now leaned against the wall. “Both of you are! If my father hadn’t gotten killed thanks to your old man, you can bet things would’ve been different! Our family never would’ve let you two fuck with one another, and as soon as we or another hunter gank your ass, you can bet we’ll make Sammy-boy there back into the _ugh_!”

Dean moved before either Sam or Bobby could react. He slammed into Christian with enough force that items on the wall close to them fell from the impact as his hand wrapped around the other man’s throat. “I have held my tongue. I haven’t shot any of you despite wanting to. I owe you and your buddies for not only the beating I took back in Indiana but for what you did to Lisa and Ben. I could so easily use these fangs to rip your throat out, or better yet… make you into what the old man made me.” He saw a flash of fear reflected now as well as hate as Christian struggled in his grasp.

“I could. I know how this goes even if it hasn’t sunk in with Sam yet. You assholes will pass it on to the community what I’ve become, just like those other jackasses did with Sam and the demon blood. I’ll be hunted for the rest of my life or I’ll force someone to kill me rather than be what I am, and that’s true but… understand this,” he growled while hearing Sam calling him and the sound of Bobby’s shotgun going off as if to keep someone away from him. “What you did to me? What you did to the Bradens? Those were huge mistakes; mistakes you and all your little friends will pay for, for some time. The last mistake you will ever make? If you come close to my brother, or if you or any of them try to touch him or hurt him, I will end you long before someone ends me!”

“Dean! Leave the asshole alone and let’s go!” Bobby shouted while he aimed his shotgun at a bristling Samuel. “You touch either of my boys and I’ll make sure you go back to hell,” he warned as Sam got his brother away from Christian and out of the base with a grim Castiel waiting for them at the door. “Their Dad wasn’t perfect. Lord knows there were times I threatened to fill John Winchester’s ass with buckshot and he might have been blind to a lot of crap that went on between those boys, but the one thing John never would’ve done was let one of his boys be turned into a vampire just for revenge! You stay away from them and if you try to cause those boys trouble then I will be damn sure to cause you all kinds of it right back!”

The old grizzled hunter paused by the door to glare at the angel. “You keep them from following them and you better make sure you stay the hell away from my door cause I ain’t any happier with you than I am that old fool,” Bobby said before storming out the door. “If you or that demon come around, I will banish both your asses and the Sheriff of Sioux Falls will have descriptions of these bastards! She will only be too thrilled to throw them in jail.”

Once the door slammed shut, Bobby Singer didn’t give a damn about anything else that might happen inside or what Castiel did. As far as he was concerned, it would be a cold day in Crowley’s hell before he let that trench coat wearing angel back in his home or around the two boys that he’d considered his for a long time.

Hurrying outside to where his truck was parked next to the Impala, he saw Sam standing beside the open driver’s door while it was clear an on edge Dean was not happy with being stuck in the shotgun position.

“You have a plan or how many favors do you expect me to pull in to find out anything about curing someone from being a vampire?” he asked even while knowing the lore was pretty scarce on those details.

“Before I left here the last few times, I’d been taking some of Samuel’s books which outdate even some of yours, so I’m hoping for something but…” Sam shot a grim look to the Impala. “He wants me to lock him in the Panic Room until we find something, Bobby.”

Bobby had seen that coming and while he knew it wouldn’t be high on Sam’s list of things to do since the younger man had serious issues with the room in his basement, he could also understand Dean’s reasoning.

“You boys go ahead and get settled, either in the house or in the basement,” he told Sam simply, adding with a look over his shoulder at the base. “I need to make a few stops before I get there and I need to talk to Sheriff Mills about some people. It’s going to be okay, Sam. We’re not letting your idjit brother go without one hell of a fight.”

Sam nodded his thanks and as he started the drive to South Dakota, all he could do was hope there’d be some miracle way out of this and try to ignore that his gut was clenching with dread at the alternative.

Once back at Bobby’s place, it took Sam time to agree to even chain Dean up in the Panic Room. When his brother reminded him that it wasn’t just for Sam’s protection but also Bobby’s in case he lost control of the hunger that was now full blown, the younger Winchester finally did as he was told.

Even though he’d been fed blood before, Dean refused to take any now, not even to take the edge off. He pretended that he couldn’t hear his brother and Bobby either upstairs or outside the closed door talking about their dwindling chances of curing him since the change was basically complete.

“Sam…” Bobby had been saying before something crashed upstairs like a pile of books being swept off the desk in the man’s library. “I ain’t any happier about this than you are but… there also isn’t a lot of options left for us to check out! Campbell made sure the change was complete this time and with it complete… Dean’s craving blood. The longer he’s without it, he’ll either go mad from starving, though I’ve never seen a vamp go totally without it, or he’ll snap on one of us and we’ll have to… _damn it boy_!”

“I’m not letting anyone kill him!” Sam shouted as something as crashed to the floor and Dean’s head pounded at the footsteps he could hear on the steps heading to the basement.

The hunter in Dean had known the odds of curing him now were slim to none but he’d still, for Sam’s sake, been hoping because he did not want to put this on his brother; especially now that he’d noticed how the return of Sam’s soul had brought back his often too emotional little brother.

However, the last 12 hours chained in the Panic Room had made him face the fact that without a cure he’d eventually be killed by someone. Dean had no doubt that by now the Campbell’s had spread it around that he’d been turned. Dean would rather face his death here than risk putting Sam in jeopardy by trying to defend him or have his death drawn out like he knew some hunters would probably do.

The exhaustion, the worry on Sam’s face as he stepped into the Panic Room, told Dean everything he needed to do and where it needed to end.

“Kill me!”

“I… I can’t do that. Don’t ask me to do that.” Sam had known the order would be coming, but it still didn’t make it easy to hear or accept that he might have to take that choice.

“I’m not asking. I’m telling you. Kill me, Sam. Kill me now because I… I won’t live like this. I won’t be what we’ve fought nearly all our lives. I won’t risk you getting hurt because of me. Now, before you try to talk me out of it or before I have to have Bobby knock your ass out so he can do this, take the damn machete that’s on the table and kill me!” Dean snapped, voice rougher, harder than usual as he was fighting the urge to yank free of the chains that held him with each beat of Sam’s heart that he could hear now.

Sam’s eyes moved to the table across the room where Bobby had placed the razor sharp machete once he arrived at the house.

He hadn’t slept since arriving here; all Sam wanted was to look through books to hopefully find some way to keep the inevitable from happening. Now as he heard the ragged tone, could almost sense the angst and pain building in his brother, he knew he was running out of options except the one that both Bobby and Dean were basically telling him to take.

Reaching for the blade, he slowly glanced back to see how wide, how dark with blood lust Dean’s eyes had become compared to how Sam was used to seeing them.

“I’m sorry.” Sam whispered as he picked up the blade and turned slowly. “I’m so damn sorry, Dean.”

**TBC**

  


 


	2. Chapter 2

**A New Breed of Hunter**

**Chapter Two**

“I’m so damn sorry, Dean.”

Dean could hear the pain in Sam’s voice as he whispered the words and began to turn with the machete in his hand. “I told you there that this isn’t your fault, Sammy.” He took a slow breath to try to appear calm when Sam turned fully to face him. “With how the chains are, you might have to hit me with some dead man’s blood to unchain me long enough to take one good swing and… Sam? What the hell are you doing? Sam!”

“I said I was sorry. I just didn’t tell you what I was apologizing for yet.” Sam knew what Dean expected him to do. Just like he figured what Bobby would be expecting him to do as well; except Sam had other plans.

He paused by the open door to the Panic Room to steady his growing nerves before tossing the machete out onto the basement floor, pulling the door shut with a slam and hooking it with the locks that Dean had installed when Sam had been coming off of demon blood and his brother had locked himself in with him.

“I’m not killing you, Dean.” Sam tossed the keys out the small window in the door before finally turning to stare at his brother. “You wouldn’t kill me when Dad told you that you might have. You didn’t give up on me then. You still tried to fight for me when I was addicted to the demon blood and I know you would have this time too. So we’ll fight this together or we’ll go out together.”

Dean blinked a few times to be sure he wasn’t imagining this because while he knew both of them were stubborn as hell, he didn’t think Sam would take it this far. “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded as he watched his brother remove the button down flannel he’d been wearing. “Okay, I get the whole not killing me issue. Neither one of us is good at doing that it seems, but this situation is not like those other ones! You were not turned into a blood thirsty monster looking to…”

“That’s not what you said on that phone message the night at the monastery the night Lucifer was let out.” Sam wanted to smack himself for bringing that hurtful message back up since he tried to forget about it as best as he could. “You called me a vampire, a monster then because I was hooked on Ruby’s blood so… yeah, it is kinda similar.”

“Who the hell did you get a message from that called you either of those things?” Dean demanded while trying to back up as Sam stepped closer, but the damn chains that kept him hooked to the ceiling didn’t give enough. “Because that sure wasn’t the message I…” he stopped to think back a few years before suddenly something clicked. “Huh. Okay, so that’s what that damn bald angel meant when he said you’d get a nudge. Sammy, bad time for this but… I didn’t leave you that message you heard. Zach screwed the one I _did_ leave you up, or the bitch did, but I would never call you a monster.”

Sam considered that a moment. It did make sense now that Dean said that. Both Heaven and Hell had been messing with them, trying to split them up so both sides could get done what they wanted, and if Zachariah felt a need to push Sam a little or if Ruby had in order to make him take that final step in killing Lilith, then the hunter could see how something as simple as a recorded message could be changed.

“I was doubting Ruby’s plan. I was worried about you, about how I’d stormed out and left you. You’d called earlier but I hadn’t listened to the message and when I did… when I heard you call me those things and everything else… I…” he glanced up with raw pain shining in hazel eyes. “I… you came there for me but…”

“We were played then just like we’ve been played now, little brother.” Dean wished he could hurt everyone in their lives who’d used them but knew it was too late. Now all he could do was just to buffer Sam from the pain this latest mess would cause. “But the huge difference still is I _am_ a vampire. I am the monster we were taught to kill and there’s no going back from that, Sam. Samuel and the soup kids made sure the cure wouldn’t work this time. There’s no saving me, little brother.

“The other option, if you won’t kill me and won’t let Bobby do it, would be to leave me to starve like this.” He glanced to the door and then back to Sam. “Yell for Bobby to come toss you those keys, you take yourself out of this room, and then lock and seal the door.”

Sam’s head shook furiously at even the thought of leaving Dean to suffer in agony like that would cause. “No, no you’re not starving either,” he argued firmly. “We can make this work.”

“Make what work?” Dean demanded incredulously, wrapping his fingers around the chains in his frustration. “There’s nothing to make work, Sam! I am a vampire! That sociopathic bastard got his wish! He blames me for bringing Azrael to Mom’s door so he’ll get his wish and I’ll die, but you have got to promise me that you will stay as far away from the Campbells as you can get because there’s something rotten with that whole lot!”

“I’m not killing you, Dean. If I have to do that then Bobby will be burning two corpses because I’ll slit my own damn throat before walking out of this room if you’re dead over something I let happen.” Sam knew Dean might not blame him because it had been impossible to judge without a soul, but Sam could blame himself plenty and would.

He stopped a few feet away from his brother to look into Dean’s eyes. Sam could see the inner struggle on his brother’s rugged face as he fought to draw the fangs back in, but the need for blood was starting to take control. “I don’t have all my memories and it seems the longer it goes, the stronger that wall Death put up is getting, but I know that I did things with Samuel, because of him, and that’s almost as bad as letting this happen to you. Hurting innocent people is bad enough, Dean, but hurting you… I can’t live with that guilt. I’d rather be dead.”

“Sam? Sammy, don’t you… shit! Sammy!” Dean had never hated this room more than he did right then because he didn’t think Bobby would hear him shout for him or even come if he did, but the second he watched his brother pull the silver switchblade out of his pocket, something inside Dean kicked back into hyper protective mode. While he was fine with dying, even at Sam’s hands, he was not fine with what he feared Sam was about to do. “Sam, stop!” he yelled even as he watched with horror as the blade flicked out. “Damn it! Bobby! Bobby, get your ass down here and stop Sam!”

“Bobby won’t come yet and we both know it.” Sam stared at the blade in his hand before letting it touch his wrist. He heard the chains rattling as if Dean was straining against them more. “Did I ever tell you how I finally knew something was wrong with me this time?” he asked suddenly.

“No, but if you put that blade down and yell for Bobby, I’ll let you psycho-babble me to death.” Dean was desperate enough to try anything, switching his eyes from Sam to where he thought he could feel the chains giving a little from the hooks in the ceiling. “Talk to me, Sammy. Tell me how you knew.”

Sam’s lips curved into a slow sad smile. He could tell Dean was just trying to buy time in the hopes that Bobby might come down but even if the older man did,  there was no way he could get the door open since he’d locked it from the inside. “I missed you calling me that,” he murmured and lifted his eyes up a little to see Dean was watching him but didn’t seem to notice the fangs had receded in his near panic. “I know I used to gripe about you calling me that but… to not have you call me ‘Sammy’ recently bugged me when I realized you weren’t. Though what tipped me off that I was messed up was when you kissed me and I didn’t want more. I’ve wanted more from you since I was 15, so to not feel anything then after so long apart… I knew there was something, but didn’t know what it was that was wrong.”

“Yeah, I knew it then too.” Dean tried to offer a smirk that he hoped didn’t show how worried he was as he saw that Sam was pressing the tip of the blade a little harder to the vein in his wrist. “Usually, whenever I’d kissed you it was like controlling an octopus. You were always all arms and legs when we made out…” He saw a quick grin before Sam dropped his head to watch what he was doing. “Hey, I’m… I’m sorry for what the asshole back there said to you about that, about us. I know I made a few wrong choices with you but I… I don’t ever want you to feel…”

“I don’t give a damn what anyone in Mom’s stupid family or even what Bobby or even Dad would think about what we’ve done.” Sam’s eyes, wet with tears now, shot back up. “You never forced me into anything, Dean! I pestered you for over a year to kiss me. I’m the one who knew, even before you gave in, that I’d stopped looking at you like just my brother or my protector and that I wanted you to be more! I made those choices too! Do you regret any of it?”

The sudden question took Dean off guard. It also caused a surge of anger that Sam might think recent events had caused him to start doubting anything. “No, I don’t regret crossing that line with you,” he replied while still tugging the chains and trying to get Sam to look at him. “I regret losing the last year with you. I regret going to Lisa. I regret a lot of crap in our lives, but that’s the one thing I won’t ever regret, Sam. I also regret not being able to kiss or touch you now.”

Sam finally looked up at that and made a choice. He didn’t close the switchblade but he did move it away from his wrist as he stepped closer to his tense brother. He could see the muscles in Dean’s jaw twitching like they did when he was upset or on edge but figured the whole vampire thing was enough to cause that reaction.

“Kiss me?” he asked quietly, almost feeling as hesitant and shy as he had at 15 when he’d finally broached the topic with his brother. Sam felt Dean jerk in the chains as he took another half step closer and knew he was probably concerned about the risk of being so close given how the need for blood had to be affecting Dean. “You can even bite me and it won’t matter, Dean.”

“Yeah, it does.” Dean snorted with an eye roll much like Sam would give before. “I won’t bite you, Sam.”

“You have before.” Sam saw fit to point out softly as he took the last step to close the small gap between them. “I liked it when you’d bite me during sex.”

Dean groaned and swore if he had his hands free right then that he’d either slap his brother or pull him in closer because that innocent comment did not do a damn thing to help him; in fact he suddenly felt another part of his body take notice to how close Sam was.

“I couldn’t kill you by biting you back then, smart ass. If I bite you now, especially right now, I couldn’t say it wouldn’t go too far.” He tried to use rational thought except Dean remembered too late that when Sam was upset or being stubborn, rational thought didn’t always work. “Sammy… God, this is so not fair.” Dean muttered under his breath as Sam leaned closer to brush a whisper soft kiss over the corner of his mouth. “This payback for that time you were hyped on demon blood and I chained you up like this and kept you distracted by teasing your ass with that toy?” he asked tightly while trying to avoid the soft, teasing kisses or the shaking fingers that touched his chest.

“It didn’t start out to be but… maybe.” Sam actually hadn’t considered how similar their positions were; back then he’d been so strung out on demon blood, especially the last time, that he hadn’t paid too much attention to anything. “Pity I didn’t think of that. We don’t have any toys to play with or… ummm…” he trailed off as deep green eyes suddenly caught his only a second before he heard the chains give a rattle, something snapped and then tight fingers where catching a handful of hair along with the wrist that still held his switchblade.

“If I trusted myself a little more and I didn’t know you were running on exhaustion and emotion right now, I’d say we didn’t need toys to play with.” Dean had felt the chains give enough that he’d been able to pull them free from the hooks to give him the freedom of movement to catch a handful of Sam’s longer hair while also grabbing the wrist with the knife. “Drop the knife, Sammy,” he ordered in a tone that was rougher than usual while jerking Sam’s arm up behind him with more strength than he would normally. “Drop the… Good boy.”

Dean heard the switchblade hit the floor of the Panic Room but when he knew he should let Sam go, to release the grip on him… he didn’t. Instead, Dean felt the grip on Sam’s hair tightening so he could pull his brother’s head back with just enough force that he heard a gasp of pain. “Still want me to kiss you, little brother?” he asked in a husky tone that had the hunter wondering if it was the vampire looking for blood or another side looking for something else that was taking control.

“Yes.” Sam got out from between clenched teeth. He knew the danger he was in. He knew that right then Dean’s control would not be the greatest and it would be easy for the bloodlust to take over, but even as he fought not to tense as his head was jerked back and he felt Dean’s lips trail over his throat, Sam still had to hope what had helped his brother survive Hell could help him this time as well.

He slowly relaxed, moving with the pull that took him from the center of the floor to the other side of the room where his back hit the wall, but Sam didn’t feel any pain as his whole brain was locked on the feel of Dean’s mouth catching his in a heated kiss that took his breath away.

Dean was torn between stopping himself or giving in to every need he had right then. The need for blood was increasing just by being this close to Sam’s throat. He could hear the rapid beat of his brother’s heart and that allowed him to see the beating veins on the long throat that he let his lips slide along before going back to lick over Sam’s lips until he felt them part with what sounded like part whimper, part moan.

Feeling the fangs starting to come out had Dean freezing with a soft curse. “Sammy, I… I want this, you so damn bad but… if I do this I’m going to lose it and… there’s no coming back if I bite you this time, baby boy.”

“Do you trust me, Dean?” Sam heard the anguish in his brother’s strained voice, could feel him shaking with need that was both for sex and blood. “I know after everything recently that you don’t have a reason to but… can I ask you to trust me to try one thing; just try it before saying no?” He’d read something in one of Samuel’s books that gave him this idea. Now to just convince Dean to attempt it... “Please?”

“Damn, I hate that I taught you that damn look.” Dean groaned as Sam used the wide and sad eyes that he knew his brother had a hard time resisting. “Yes, I trust you. But you know I’m not big on the whole doing before hearing the plan thing. What do you want me to try before… shit! Sam! _Stop_!”

Sam knew he had one shot at this plan working, so when he felt Dean starting to pull back he used the long part of the chain that was still attached to the cuff on his brother’s one wrist to twist it quickly while changing their positions before Dean had a chance to realize what he was planning.

The chain was long enough that Sam was able to quickly wrap it around them after he swung Dean around so that his back was against the wall and Sam’s back was pressed against his brother’s chest. He knew even with his normal strength that Dean would stop him but he was hoping to use surprise to his advantage as he quickly used the sharp piece of metal on the end of the chain to slash his arm.

“Drink from me,” he said quickly while feeling Dean go rigid a second before he started to fight to separate them. He paused as he discovered that if he jerked away or tried to free them from the chain too quickly now with the way Sam was holding the jagged edge of it, that he could end up doing more damage to his brother than Sam already had done to his bleeding arm.

“Damn it, Sam! No!” Dean yelled, furious that Sam would even think he would but even as he tried to look around for something to staunch the now steady flow of blood from Sam’s arm he could feel the need to drink, to take what his brother was offering getting almost too overwhelming. “Sam! I won’t use you as a damn food source! You’re my brother! I… I love you and…”

“If you love me then stop trying to see this as a death sentence and drink!” Sam shot back angrily, twisting his upper body enough to stare into Dean’s face.

He saw the need there but he was also surprised to still see concern as well as so much control; he’d seen new vampires totally lose it from the scent of fresh blood. Sam was hoping that meant his plan might actually work. “Either way, I’m bleeding. So either you drink, feed from me to stay alive long enough for me to explain this idea or… I bleed out, you starve yourself either into madness or force Bobby to kill you, assuming he can get into the Panic Room, and he still burns two bodies.” He knew what he was asking sounded crazy, but right then he was trying to not pass out as he realized he was bleeding a lot more than he’d figured he would. “Dean? Trust me and… whoa.”

“I swear to God if you don’t end up dead from this stunt I might beat your ass just for pulling it!” Dean growled but was quick to wrap one arm around Sam’s chest when he felt his legs start to buckle. He let them slide down the wall slowly, keeping Sam against him for the moment until he could unwind the chain without more damage. “Sammy? Even if I do this… there’s no guarantee that it’ll do more than prolong what’ll still end up as my death.”

“Trust me, De’n.” Sam felt his head drop back to Dean’s shoulder, letting the chain in his hand slip free; not surprised that the moment he did his brother was freeing them. But instead of pushing him away, Sam was slightly surprised to feel Dean’s arm ease around his shoulders to shift him to the side. “De’n… please… let…”

“Shhh. Calm down and stay still for me, Sam.” Dean wished they were closer to the bed in the room but then recalled why he’d steered them away from that piece of furniture and just reached for a blanket to place under Sam’s head as he laid his brother down on the floor.

Dean felt the burning need to feed right on the surface. He could feel most of the fangs he knew to be in his mouth now breaking the skin on his gums, so Dean also knew by now he shouldn’t be able to think clearly, much less keep calm with the amount of blood now pouring from what had looked to be such a tiny slash.

“Swear to me you have a plan in that too big head of yours,” he was saying as he hastily made a grab for other items in the room before moving to lay next to his brother and taking his bleeding arm in his hand. “Sam? This won’t magically cure me, y’know.”

“Hmm, know that,” Sam murmured, fighting to keep his eyes open to look at Dean to see his brother’s eyes were still green, still almost normal. “Don’t expect it to cure you. Hoping it keeps… symptoms calm longer than normal vampires… maybe help keep… you human.”

“The damn idjit found a section in some old book of Campbell’s, a piece of some woman’s diary from the 1700’s,” Bobby spoke up from the door where he’d long since given up getting in and had to wait for one of the Winchesters to notice him after he’d come down to discover Sam’s little plan and what he’d have assumed to be a blood bath if he hadn’t heard the boys arguing over it. “The way it read… she was in love with some boy, he got turned by a vamp, but instead of turning all Vlad the Impaler or killing to survive he fed on her once or twice a month and that worked. Not sure how or how Sam thinks this will work but… I heard what he said Dean, and he’s right.”

Dean might know that but it didn’t make it any easier to accept. “Leave us alone for a while?” he asked quietly while seeing Sam’s lashes fluttering and knew his brother was trying to stay awake with him. “Having him watch me do this is one thing, but I’d rather you not have to see it.”

“Yell for me if you or he needs anything and in the meantime, I’ll go see if I can figure out a way to break into my own damn Panic Room.” Bobby didn’t like what was about to happen and he could tell Dean wasn’t thrilled with it either, but he’d hold his tongue and just hope whatever Sam was planning with this crazy idea worked the way the younger man wanted it to. “Dean? Whatever happens… I want you to know that I’ll have your backs.”

Nodding, Dean pushed down the raw emotion as he tried not to think too much on what would happen soon. Right then he focused on the bleeding arm in his hand and the glassy eyes he could feel watching him. “I’ll do this but close your eyes for me,” he said quietly, smoothing his other hand back through Sam’s hair. “Sammy, close your eyes. I… I don’t want you to see me drink from your arm like this.”

“Wanna watch you,” Sam said but heard how slurred his words were. There was a quick flash of fear until warm lips touched his before he watched the tip of Dean’s tongue slip out slowly to give a light lick over where the gash was and Sam shivered, but not from fear.

Sam had read the entry in the book as well as looking up other similar old time lore, so he suspected that if a vampire fed off of someone special, someone close to them that it might help to soothe the lust for blood or keep the vampire from losing control in certain situations.

He had a brief moment of worry that he still might have demon blood in his system that might react badly in Dean, but then Sam was too busy losing himself in the sight of watching Dean’s mouth close over the cut on his arm and begin to drink to think of anything else.

Dean thought he’d revolt at the first taste of blood on his tongue but when that didn’t happen he shrugged it off to the natural vampire’s instinct to crave the warm liquid that he could now taste as he closed his lips slowly over the deeper than he liked cut on Sam’s arm.

Over the years, he and Sam had seen a lot of vampires as well as a lot of victims, so he feared becoming someone like Gordon or some others— even though Dean recalled Lenore’s clan of vampires had survived on drinking from animals— the gashes he’d seen on some victims worried him of what he might do to Sam if he wasn’t careful.

Expecting all the fangs to come out the moment the blood hit his mouth, Dean was surprised when he stayed calm, almost gentle as he held Sam’s arm and let the teeth sink into soft flesh. He looked up when he heard a soft moan, looking for pain or fear on his brother’s face, but was stunned at what he found.

Sam’s eyes had drifted half closed, his lips parted on a soft sigh as Dean had so often seen and heard from him during sex and that forced Dean to look on this act in another light.

Dean suspected that even if he lived this week out that he’d never accept what he’d been turned into or what he’d have to do to live now. He hated being something he’d once killed and knew other hunters would never see him as anything but a monster. Assuming he and Sam found a way to compromise or work around this issue, he knew he’d have to make Sam understand that the first time someone came for him that his little brother had to back off and not get hurt or killed trying to defend him.

‘ _No. I will never just let a hunter try to kill you without doing something_.’

Sharp green eyes looked up but Dean could see that Sam was either halfway unconscious or so deep into what looked like sexual bliss that he knew his brother hadn’t spoken when it suddenly clicked with Dean what was happening.

‘ _Did you know this would happen if I drank from you?_ ’ he asked silently as if to test his wary theory while letting his tongue lick over warm skin and was rewarded by a moan.

‘ _I… I wasn’t certain. A link was formed between the girl in the journal and her boyfriend after he was turned and he drank from her but… mmm… but between us_ , _I think there might be more to it than just the blood._ ’ Sam’s thoughts were quiet as if unsure or hesitant that his brother was angry with him for not telling him this sooner. ‘ _You and I have been close to linked since we were kids. You always knew when I needed you and stuff so I… I hoped if I could get you to drink from me that… well… I was hoping it might help you to control the bloodlust most vampires deal with. Mad?_ ’

‘ _At you? No, I’m not mad at you, Sam. Though the next time you get a brilliant scheme, tell me first before slicing your damn arm open with a sharp piece of metal._ ’ Dean figured this would require several stitches and a tetanus shot since he had no clue on how long it had been since his brother had had one of those. ‘ _If I agree to go along with this plan of yours, you know we need to set some ground rules. The first of which is you will never put yourself at risk for me._ ’

‘ _I thought that was supposed to be a ground rule already but I just usually ignore it, like you ignore it when it comes to stepping in front of me_ ,’ Sam replied back without realizing how he was responding to either the slow, sensual touch of Dean’s tongue on his arm or the feel of warm fingers that were now sliding under his t-shirt.

‘ _Fine, we’ll talk about that one._ ’ Dean smirked around where he was slowly starting to realize he could almost feel the cut closing under his mouth and made a note to check into this crazy lore himself. Later. Right then he was too fascinated with watching Sam and suddenly thinking this mental link thing might be good for more than communicating during times he couldn’t talk to his brother. ‘ _Learning the ins and outs of this vampire thing won’t be easy_ , _so you might have to take the brunt of hunting until I figure out what’s real and what’s movie lore._ ’

‘ _I think… hmm, that feels good… I think you’re still safe to eat garlic and stuff like that._ ’ Sam’s body arched and he gasped as his eyes fluttered open to see Dean’s had shifted to the darker, brilliant green they did during sex but realized, except for the hand on his chest, his brother wasn’t touching him physically like Sam had thought he was. “You’re not… oh God,” he broke off with a moan of desire as Dean slowly eased his arm away from his mouth. “Bad time to tell you how hot I think you are while doing that?”

Dean wondered if he couldn’t put that comment off to how tired Sam was as well as the loss of blood, but rather than shrug it off like he might’ve any other time, he merely lifted his eyebrow while slowly letting the tip of his tongue slip out to lick his lips. “No, but if doing this puts you in this mood? Then we will definitely not be staying at Bobby’s place for very long because while I’ll admit drinking from you did seem to curb the need for blood, it also managed to remind me just how the hell long it’s been since I’ve had sex. Much less how long it’s been since I’ve had sex with _you_ , and I think I really need to deal with that craving now.” He slid his fingers slowly over Sam’s chest before sliding them back down toward his belt. “You with it enough for that or do you want to wait?”

Sam knew he was probably both mentally and physically exhausted. He also knew he probably needed to check that wound, but right then all he wanted was to get the cuffs off of Dean’s wrists so neither of them were hurt by the metal and manage to lose both his clothes and his brother’s jeans.

He’d been aroused from the first touch of Dean’s tongue sliding over his wrist, which if Sam was honest with himself had always been a huge turn on for him.

“Really? Is that so?” Dean’s lips curved slowly into the sinful and sexy smile he used only when they were alone and chuckled as Sam’s cheeks went red as he realized he could hear his thoughts now as well. “Well, if you had told me that years ago I could’ve been leaving hickeys on you in places other than your neck. You like it when I kiss you all over, baby boy?”

“Fuck!” Sam bit his lip to keep a low sound of want from escaping but just hearing Dean call him that nickname, the one that was just between them and only when they were intimate, had his already heated blood nearly boiling. “Yes! And no, I don’t want to wait and damn, I can’t get those cuffs off of you and strip too and… mmhm!”

Dean’s lips caught his in a searing kiss that served to distract Sam even as he felt his shirt being peeled off over his head. With the shirt gone, it allowed his brother’s mouth to close over one of the rock hard little nubs on his chest to begin to roll it with his tongue before teeth, _real_ teeth, grazed over it and Sam swore he’d come before they even did anything.

Sex was something Sam thought they should talk about since he was certain while soulless he’d had a few flings that made him feel guilty because he and Dean had always promised to be true to one another, a promise they’d both made years ago.

“Not your fault, Sam,” Dean murmured against his ear while reminding himself that he had to learn to control this link between them. He refused to invade Sam’s privacy so that would be something they’d have to learn to buffer a little or else his little brother’s stronger thoughts would just came through to him. “Starting when you wake up, I want you to start letting go of the guilt you have for things done this past year. You couldn’t judge right from wrong, black from white, so it was all grey to you.” He was careful when he moved his hand up to brush Sam’s hair out of his face to see how dark his eyes were growing.

“You made mistakes. You were also led to make them by assholes that I will be dealing with down the road, but right this second? Right this second, I want you to put all of that aside and tell me where the keys are to get these cuffs off so I can touch you.” Dean hoped they weren’t on the set of keys Sam tossed out of the room because taking the time to pick the locks just was _not_ in his level of patience right then. “Sam?”

“In my pocket.” Sam started to reach into his hip pocket only to feel Dean already searching for them when another sound was heard and both Winchesters looked to see the keys for the padlocks on the door had been tossed back in.

“Just in case you two decide you want out of my Panic Room,” Bobby called from outside the door while trying to decide how he felt about all of these recent changes and how to handle them. “I’m heading into the junkyard to look for a few parts and then I’ll be in the shed.” He decided to point out while adding with a cough, “I haven’t been blind the last few years, so I figured out a while back that you two were crossing those lines that Jim and I told John about. I ain’t gonna judge you boys so long as you both know what the hell you’re doing and you’re happy… and so long as I don’t ever have to see it or hear it. Remember that.”

Sam had gone still while Dean frowned as they heard the older hunter clomp up the stairs before looking at one another in surprise.

“Huh. Okay, remind me that one of us needs to make sure that’s Bobby because he is taking this stuff a little too well,” Dean muttered but by then he’d located the keys to the cuffs, easily unhooking them before glancing to the keys to the door and then back to Sam.

They’d had sex in the Panic Room before but always when Dean had time to prep the room. This time he hadn’t done that because he’d been preparing himself to die as he hadn’t been able to find the silver lining in the whole vampire thing; he still didn’t see one but was willing to give Sam time to point it out to him. Now he was deciding between sex in the Panic Room or taking it upstairs since while fast sex was fine, fast sex on the floor just wasn’t suiting Dean’s needs for Sam right then.

“Upstairs?” he asked while catching his brother’s mouth in a deep kiss, feeling more than hearing a soft acknowledgement and moved to help Sam stand before grabbing the keys off the floor to begin to unlock the locks. “You realize as soon as I think it through that you basically locked yourself in here with me and how bad that could’ve turned out for you that I will probably get pissed off and yell, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but I trusted you.” Sam was more nervous now that the actual danger was over and trying to read Dean’s actions seemed a little harder, despite the new ability to hear each other’s thoughts. He noticed his arm looked to have almost closed over which surprised him but then his focus went back to his brother when Dean’s fingers hooked in his belt to tug him forward into his arms once the locks were off and the door was open. “I trusted you not to hurt me, Dean. Just like I’ve always trusted you.”

Dean paused to look up into Sam’s eyes, emotions that he’d always kept buried threatening to come to the surface as it seemed like this whole vampire thing was enhancing all of his senses. “Fine, I’ll give you that one just because I’m still adjusting and really want to get you on a bed,” he muttered but the gentle way he let his fingers run over Sam’s arm before meshing their fingers told Sam the truth, and he leaned into Dean’s shoulder.

“We really making out in Bobby’s house?” he asked only to gasp at the feel of Dean’s mouth closing over his throat to nuzzle and lick it before carefully teasing the warm skin with his real teeth.

“Wouldn’t be the first time, baby boy,” Dean reminded him and then worked to get them out of the basement and up the steps to the second floor with only a second to consider sex on the kitchen table; it would be good if he didn’t want to give Bobby a stroke if the older hunter happened to return sooner than expected. “Bedroom, Sam. Now.”

Sam didn’t have to be told twice and by the time his back hit one of the beds in the room that they’d always shared, he was out of breath and shaking from desire as Dean’s hands roamed and touched his bare skin while he’d left an impressive array of marks along Sam’s throat and down his shoulder. “Dean…” he moaned into the next kiss, hips lifting to help in the removal of his jeans.

Dean had noticed everything from taste, to smell, to his vision, all seemingly enhanced now. He’d have to adjust to those changes, but right then he was also noticing another thing that was enhanced by the change, like how strongly he reacted to Sam.

From the day he’d realized his formerly gawky and skinny teenage brother had grown into his long arms and legs to just recently when Dean decided that maybe all that working out Sam had been doing might pay off, Sam never failed to take his breath away.

It wasn’t until right that moment, as he allowed his gaze to move over Sam’s body, that Dean realized just how much he’d missed this. Oh, he’d tried to enjoy sex with Lisa, and it wasn’t that it had been bad, but as Dean felt his blood heat, his cock fill while looking at the muscular body, the broad shoulders beneath him, he understood that sex with Sam, as unconventional or immoral as it might be viewed, would top everything else in his mind.

“I know I bitched and moaned about all the exercising you’ve been doing lately but… damn, Sammy, you were hot before but now, I will say this and call do-over tomorrow, you are goddamn fucking gorgeous,” Dean said and then laughed as he saw the blush tinge Sam’s cheeks and knew the little brother that he knew and loved was back in all ways because only Sam would blush at being told how good looking he was.

Sam was glad to roll over so he could try to gain control over the emotions that wanted to pour out after not having them for so long. He’d rolled to his knees without being told to, letting his forehead rest on the arms he folded over the back of the headboard.

It was rare for Dean to share such emotions with him except on rare occasions, so it took Sam by surprise to hear his brother tell him that. Sam wanted to reply, to say something back, but wasn’t sure what Dean would accept. In the end he worked to settle down all while burning at the gentle way Dean’s hands touched him.

Dean undid his jeans enough to ease the building pressure while digging through the nightstand for something to use. He decided not to mention he could _feel_ Sam’s thoughts and understood the feelings he’d expressed, as well as the ones not spoken yet, were shared.

“Love you, Sammy,” he whispered against the back of Sam’s neck while he knelt behind him to coat his fingers with the lube he’d located in the nightstand from the last time they’d been here… the night before Detroit. “Missed you too.”

“I… missed you too, Dean.” Sam glanced over his shoulder with wet eyes to see brilliant green staring back at him and met the next kiss fully; tongues played in each other’s mouths while he felt Dean shudder as control began to become sparse as desire and lust built. “If you need to… y’know… drink or… whatever we’re calling it, you can. I’m… fuck… I’ve missed feeling you like this.”

Dean bit his lip at the need he could feel building as well as what he could hear from Sam. He felt a fang start to slip out but refused to lose what control he had during sex. This would be the tricky part for him right now and he knew it because it was so easy to lose control with Sam under normal circumstances. The hunter knew he had to practice keeping the fangs in during sex because if and when he bit his brother for fun, he’d do it with his own teeth. The fangs would only come out for blood needed to survive and despite being a new vampire, Dean was surprised to not be craving it more.

“We’ll come up with a name later,” he muttered after he gave a solid roll of his hips to take his past ready cock up past the second ring of muscle.

He’d teased, kissed, touched, and played with Sam all the way stretching and prepping his brother until finally Dean was sure they’d both burst. Patience was not high on his list of things he did normally but Dean had always managed to give what he had when it came to moments like this.

When Sam finally growled at him to quit treating him like he’d break and fuck his ass, Dean knew he’d pushed them both to the limit and gave a searing kiss while drawing Sam’s bottom lip into his mouth to suck on it as he gave a solid push of his cock into Sam’s ass.

Neither brother knew who had groaned more at that contact, and Sam didn’t care. All he cared about was finally feeling Dean’s long, thick cock filling his ass and the feel of his brother’s arm wrapping around his chest to hold him back against him.

From the first time they’d crossed that invisible line, the sex between them had never been boring or tame. Sam knew Dean might be wary the first few times now, until he adjusted to the changes caused by being a vampire, but in Sam’s mind there was no fear of being hurt in any way that hadn’t been present any other time when they played rough.

Dean’s teeth raked lightly over Sam’s jaw and throat as he leaned his head back against his shoulder. Years of sex allowed them to know how to move with the other so both got satisfied, but for Dean, he made certain with each thrust, each move of his hips that he hit that spot inside his brother that soon had Sam making filthy sounds and words that Dean knew were in Latin.

“So hot like this, Sammy,” he murmured against his ear, tugging the sensitive earlobe between his teeth because he knew Sam enjoyed that. “I missed kissing you, baby boy. Missed touching you, tasting you and… God, Sam, I’ve missed feeling you like this.”

Sam had long since passed his limit and needed to come but had been trying to hold back so this moment didn’t end so soon, but hearing Dean’s low, husky, whiskey coated voice that was practically sin and sex all rolled into one, pushed him to the point of no return.

The fingers of one hand were digging into Dean’s thigh while he tried to reach back to grab a handful of still too short hair and heard the low chuckle he usually got when he did that.

“I keep my hair short for a reason and that’s the main one.” Dean adored the frustrated bitch face that earned him as he moved his free hand down from where he’d been teasing over Sam’s chest to close over his red, angry and weeping cock to begin a smooth, long stroke that earned him a low moan of need that included his name and a few pleas that he was only too happy to give his brother.

“Love you,” he said a second before he stretched enough to meet Sam’s kiss as he turned his head toward him again, and this time when he caught Sam’s lip he did bite it enough to taste blood.

Sam had been torn between moving back or into the strong fingers stroking him when suddenly he felt the sharp, brief burst of pain as his lip was bit. Rather than be shocked, he felt himself come hard with the feel of Dean’s fingers stroking his cock and the way his brother sucked on his lip as their lips slowly touched and played.

‘ _Let go, Sammy. I’ve got you._ ’ Dean’s voice in his head reassured Sam that he was in control of both himself and the vampire and then he did let go, allowing the climax to hit him and losing himself in the rush when it hit fully.

Dean smiled as he felt Sam relax, allowing his orgasm to take control. He kept his hips moving to hit Sam’s prostate while his fingers stayed gentle as they stroked from base to tip until he sensed the moment Sam’s cock began to get too sensitive and he let them drop away.

He’d held back his own climax to concentrate on giving Sam this moment but he soon felt Sam’s inner muscles clamping down around him with a low moan of pleasure, Dean lost it. He came with a moan of Sam’s name, lips pressed against his brother’s neck, arm tightening when he felt Sam shudder as he came down from his orgasm and went limp back against him.

“I’ve got you, little brother,” Dean murmured softly, letting his eyes close to cover the emotions he felt as he heard the softly whispered words in return. “Always, Sammy. We’ll always have each other.”

He worked through his own climax with a few more thrusts before Dean slowly shifted. Using the new strength he’d found he had to move Sam over to the other bed but didn’t break the connection they had right then; content to just lay with Sam for the time it took Dean to settle and Sam’s over-sexed brain to start to come back online.

As Dean laid still to watch Sam’s blissful, sleepy face, he let his tongue run over his mouth to feel relief that while he knew the fangs were there they couldn’t be felt and he still didn’t feel the burning desire for more blood like he figured he might. Considering what Sam had said, as well as what Bobby had said his brother had read, Dean wondered if perhaps Sam’s idea might actually work. He hoped… because he hated to see Sam hurt even though Dean knew they’d have more issues to deal with once it got leaked what he’d become.

Dean finally eased out to go grab a cloth to clean them both up with before digging into the dresser to find a couple pairs of old sweats that had been left from other times. He smirked a little that while his were a little tight, Sam’s definitely showed the muscle his brother had put on but figured they’d work for the moment.

He looked at Sam’s arm to see the gash was just a small mark now, a mark that he pressed a soft kiss to and was rewarded with a soft sigh as tired but clear hazel eyes finally opened to look at him. “Hey,” Dean murmured once Sam’s lashes blinked a few times to let him wake up fully and see him as he laid beside him on a bed that was definitely not big enough for two full grown men.

“Hey back,” Sam yawned before looking at his brother curiously. He was unsure what would happen now or what he should say or do considering things. “How… how do you feel?” he asked the biggest question in his mind, worried about how long Dean could go before the hunger returned. “Do you need to…”

Dean’s hand caught his when Sam went to lift his arm as if to offer it only to stop when soft lips touched the mark on his arm but no teeth were felt and his brother’s eyes looked calm.

“So far I’m not feeling anything, so we’ll see how long it goes until I do and then how long I can push it before I need to… bite you again.” Dean hated the thought of using his brother as a damn food source but if doing so meant he could stay with Sam, that maybe they could still hunt together, then he supposed he might be able to adjust after a while; it would just take him some time. “How do you feel?” he asked with concern after he thought of how much blood Sam had lost. “Dizzy? Sick? Anything I need to know about so Bobby can overreact?”

“No, I mainly feel tired but I felt like that before I cut myself. I think I’ll be good with some sleep.” Sam started to move only to feel Dean’s arm bring him closer and he smiled as he found the one spot between his brother’s neck and shoulder that he used to sleep the best at. “Stay with me?”

“Don’t I always stay with you after we’ve made love?” Dean scoffed and let his fingers card back through Sam’s hair, making a note to point out his brother needed a haircut soon, but since he enjoyed the way Sam’s eyes softened when he did this gesture he could hold off on mentioning it for now. “Just go to sleep, Sammy. We’ll figure all this out once you wake up and see where we go from here.”

Sam was leery on sleeping; he didn’t want to want up to find either this was all a dream or his brother had left in order to protect him. He started to shake his head and offer an excuse to stay awake when he felt warm thoughts touch him at the same time as soft lips brushed over his when he lifted his face to look up.

“Even though I know the dangers that will be coming, I wouldn’t walk out on you like that, Sam,” Dean reassured him quietly, picking up noises from outside the house that caused him to tense until he realized it was just Bobby complaining to a curious Sheriff Jodi Mills why he was hiding out on his porch. “Oh my God. Bobby just told Sheriff Mills,” he groaned and winced as the responding voice went right through his head.

“What? That you got turned into a vampire?” Sam asked sleepily, resting his head over Dean’s heart to smile as he still heard it beating and felt fingers move over his back before slipping to his side to give a slight pinch.

“No, that we were in the house having sex so he was hiding out until he thought we were done.” Dean stuck his tongue in his cheek when he felt his brother go still and then heard a soft but definite curse. “Yeah, I think I would’ve been happier if he had told her I was a vampire first and then work up to the whole sex thing.”

Sam considered getting up to go soothe this over but then felt Dean’s arm hold him still and just decided to handle it when he woke up. He would take this time with his brother for as long as he could claim it since the younger man knew every day from now on might be their last until he could handle their grandfather and his lies.

“We’ll be okay, Sam,” Dean assured him, letting his touch stay light until he felt Sam relaxing again. He offered another kiss just to see Sam’s smile as he drifted off to sleep. “We’ll be okay. Somehow.”

It was another week before the Winchesters were ready to leave South Dakota. It had taken several days to convince Bobby, and a now very curious Jodi, that Dean was actually coping better than anyone thought he would and that he didn’t need to feed as often as other vampires did so long as he fed from Sam.

Curious what would happen if he fed from blood from a blood bank, Jodi’s contribution to the cause, Dean choked the warmed blood down only to learn with a grim look of ‘I told you so’ from his brother that the craving was back within a day instead of three or four if he drank from Sam’s wrist.

Learning that Sam’s theory might be correct and that so long as he fed from him that he could almost be normal didn’t thrill Dean, but he accepted that it was either this or nothing; he finally agreed to try it Sam’s way for the time being.

He’d accepted Bobby’s lecture while Jodi was grilling Sam on things the older Winchester was certain he didn’t want to know about.

“Campbell’s trying to cause issues within the community,” the grizzled old hunter had said while watching Dean draw something on the wall of an old shed on the outskirts of his property. “He ain’t gonna stop until he has your head on a pike. That man needs sent back to hell or wherever Crowley found him or else neither of you boys will be safe.”

“I’ll protect Sam. No one, not a hunter or a Campbell, touches my brother again or else these fangs might come in real handy,” Dean replied while putting the final touches on the sigil he made before tossing a match into the bowl on the floor of the shed, turning with the angel blade gripped in his hand. “Hey. You and I need some words while Sam’s not around.”

Castiel wasn’t surprised by the summons but he was slightly surprised by the wards put up to block him from a good portion of his power.

For the last week, he’d avoided contacting either Winchester or coming close to the junkyard. He’d dealt with matters in Heaven, as well as trying to control issues with Crowley and the Campbell family. Castiel hadn’t been certain what to expect when called but he was surprised to see Dean looking as well as he was considering what he’d been turned into.

“Dean, I…” he started to speak only to stop when the very sharp point of the angel killing blade was suddenly against his chest and a very obviously pissed off hunter was in his face; the angel understood that being made into a vampire had not changed the hunter in Dean at all. “You’re angry.”

Bobby snorted at the understatement of those words as Dean’s eyebrows nearly crawled back on his head before he growled low in his throat.

“You pulled my brother out of the Cage without bothering to tell me. You… _left_ a piece of his soul behind and then was leeching the rest off of him for some reason I still don’t want to think too hard on or I’d kill you right now!” Dean had been pissed from the moment he finally got everything Sam knew out of him and then what Bobby could add.

Dean accepted that once he owed Castiel for pulling him out of Hell and for trying to help him and Sam stop the Apocalypse, but as he’d stood watching Sam sleep the other night, it hit him that if Castiel hadn’t kept him from getting to Sam sooner that night, hadn’t kept him in the Green Room so Zachariah or even Ruby could change his message, than perhaps Lucifer never would’ve been released and Sam never would have had to go into the goddamn Cage in the first place.

It angered him to the point that Dean had felt his fangs come out as he watched Sam shake as a nightmare chased him until a touch from Dean’s hand and his mind seemed to calm him. But it wasn’t until Dean slipped into bed beside him that Sam fell back into a peaceful sleep.

The rumors of it being leaked to the hunting community about them both made Sam uneasy but he agreed with Dean that if they were going to hunt or even survive, then they couldn’t hide at Bobby’s. Though it was amusing to watch Jodi slap cuffs on a couple assholes who were clearly sent by Samuel to cause them issues.

Dean had gotten his issue across to them as well and now he planned to do the same with the angel in front of him before he and Sam headed out on the road.

“I warned you once that if you hurt my brother or my car that I’d kill you. Now I’m warning you one more time, Castiel.” He paused to consider his words before giving a not so gentle tap of the blade against the angel’s throat before moving the tip of the blade to right under his jaw and saw the moment when the threat became very real.

“I don’t know what the hell game you’re playing with Crowley or my bastard of a grandfather. I don’t know and I don’t give a crap. What I care about is back in that house. He’s been put through hell and back because of your kind and the demons, but if you, if Crowley or Samuel come close enough to my brother to hurt him, to try to cause him any grief… all bets are off and I will do to you what I did to Zachariah.” Dean let the fangs show this time as he smirked at the look of surprise he was given.

“I’m betting if Death hadn’t decided to step in when he did that you never would’ve done a goddamn thing. But when the very Angel of Death calls your bluff and makes you give back what you never should’ve touched, that changed your plan. I’m also betting me still being alive and not locked in the Panic Room or a raving nut might also be screwing with you or Crowley’s ideas. Well here’s a little message to take back to the new King of Hell and Samuel,” Dean stepped back but didn’t turn his back as he moved closer to the sigil on the shed wall. “I might be a vampire. I might not be human. But what I still am and will be until someone takes my head off, is Sam’s brother. I’m also his lover, stop choking Bobby, and for either of those things I will kill the first angel, demon, hunter, or monster that comes near us.”

Dean ignored the shocked look Castiel was giving him as if surprised by his words or his choices. He nodded to the second bowl of spell items on the floor before striking a match. “I might be a different breed of hunter now but I will still protect what is mine. Stay the hell away from us, Castiel. Until you do something to make up for not only letting Sam out of the Panic Room that one time to working with Crowley now, I want nothing to do with you. Goodbye.”

The match hit the bowl and in a flash of blue smoke the banishing spell took the fumbling for words angel away and slowly Dean sighed. “I remember a time when goddamn Wendigos were the biggest pain in my ass,” he muttered while hearing Sam shouting for him. “Keep your ear to the ground and call us if you pick up anything he might need to know?” he asked while accepting Bobby’s hug.

“Campbell might be trying to use the reputation his family once had, and while some hunters still hold a grudge against Sam for things, you boys still have others who will stand up for you.” Bobby walked back to where Sam was pacing the ground beside the Impala until he caught sight of his brother and the instant flash of relief could be seen. “You sure you don’t want to stick around a while longer, Dean?” he asked but suspected he knew why the boys were eager to be going.

“No, if we’re going to make this work then we have to see if we can while not having a safety net.” Dean also had picked up Sam’s edginess about being here when they both knew that while Bobby was accepting of things, it was sometimes awkward; especially when it came to them having sex or the whole feeding thing. “Promise me though that if… if anything happens to me, that you’ll watch out for him?”

Bobby glanced over sharply to see Dean’s face was grim. The older man had known both Winchesters since they were kids so he knew that Dean would rather die than see his brother hurt so he understood what was being said.

“Yeah, Jodi and I’ll watch out for him, but you just make sure nothing does happen to you,” he said while clapping Dean on the back of the neck as they got close to the Impala. “You show that bald old jackass that it takes more than a few extra teeth to keep a damn Winchester down.”

Dean gave him a tight smile as he nodded. Then he was reaching out to run a hand along Sam’s arm before holding out his hand. “Keys, bitch,” he said while ignoring Bobby’s shout and Sam’s innocent smile before the Impala’s keys were dropped in his hand. “Tell the Sheriff we said goodbye and will see her the next time we’re around.”

“I will but she’ll probably be pulling you over before you get out of town so just be ready for that.” Bobby nodded to Sam as the younger man slid into the Impala’s passenger seat. “Take care of yourselves and call me!” he called as the car drove out of his lot and he blew out a breath. “Damn idjits will be the death of me yet. Now to go figure out who I can bribe to help me cover up this mess...”

Sam was quiet as they drove out of Sioux Falls. He hid his smile as they were pulled over by a stern Jodi who lectured them in her best ‘Mom’ voice about safe sex, safe blood drinking, and to call her if they needed her to pull strings and arrest people.

“You told her we didn’t use condoms?” Dean was still muttering an hour later as he drove down the nearly empty highway with the radio on some classic rock station and Sam sitting close to his side to use his shoulder for a pillow rather than try to sleep against the door like he usually would. “Seriously?”

“I didn’t _tell_ her. She… asked. And when I blushed, she figured it out.” Sam shrugged, eyes heavy but he still didn’t want to sleep yet. “Besides, I told her it didn’t matter. We’d been sharing everything since we were kids anyway and… that’s about the same sound she made too.”

Dean would’ve hit his head on something if he hadn’t been driving but he decided to let it go since he wasn’t really upset; he just enjoyed teasing Sam. He glanced over when he felt fingers touching his face and knew what Sam was doing as when he started feeling the hunger one of the damn fangs could be felt and Sam knew how to feel for it now after Dean had tried his damndest to hide it.

“I’m still good, Sam,” he assured him but did give a fast kiss to his brother’s fingers before he pulled them away and saw the shy smile he got even in the dark car. “I promised that I’d tell you when I started to feel like I needed the blood and I will. You can sleep or if you want the next motel we find, we’ll get a room.”

Sam wasn’t as tired as he had been but it was clear to both Winchesters that so long without proper sleep or food had worn Sam down so he still slept a lot more than he liked. He knew that was why Dean was offering to find a room now, so he shook his head while resting it on his brother’s shoulder.

“No, I’ll be fine until you want to stop,” he said and then settled to watch the passing cars and his brother’s rugged jaw in the darkened car. “Dean? We’ll be able to do this right?” he asked after several moments of silence. “I mean, you do feel a little better about still hunting with me and all?”

“Do you mean have I started accepting the fact that our stupid grandfather had me turned into a vampire because he blames me for Mom dying? No, I think I’ll need a year or so before I accept that.” Dean glanced over before pulling off the road in order to face Sam fully without risking a wreck. “Sam, I accept the pros of this new life. I accept your plan to keep the hunger in check, and that it might actually work. The longer it goes, the longer I might be able to go between feedings, but it’s going to take me time to fully accept that one man’s hate not only cost me my humanity but almost cost you your soul.” He slipped his hands up to frame Sam’s face, bringing him closer so their foreheads touched and he could smile while offering soft kisses over Sam’s wrinkled brow until it slowly smoothed over.

“I love you, Sammy. I will fight this curse and whoever might come after me because of it for you, so stop worrying that I’ll kill myself or get myself killed.” Dean eased back to watch Sam take this in before nodding slowly and moving into his arms for a hug that Dean allowed because he knew they both needed the connection. “We’ll hunt like we were taught, and even if I might be a new breed of hunter, I will still fight to keep this, what we’ve been through, from happening to anyone else. Okay?”

Sam nodded again, relaxing more as he heard the firmness in Dean’s voice and knew his brother wasn’t just humoring him. “Still the family business?”

“Always,” Dean promised and got them back on the road with silent thoughts of just what might come for them next or who since he doubted if his new existence would slip under the radar of everyone.

Sam settled back and this time let his eyes drift closed. He’d read all the lore again and wouldn’t quit until he found out if one piece of it in a faded old book might be true; that there was still a way to cure a vampire. If there was, he’d find it, and then they’d deal with everyone who’d betrayed them; be it friend or foe.

**The End**


End file.
